Rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) and lithium metal batteries (including Li-sulfur and Li metal-air batteries) are considered promising power sources for electric vehicle (EV), hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and portable electronic devices, such as lap-top computers and mobile phones. Lithium as a metal element has the highest capacity (3,861 mAh/g) compared to any other metal or metal-intercalated compound as an anode active material (except Li4.4Si, which has a specific capacity of 4,200 mAh/g). Hence, in general, Li metal batteries have a significantly higher energy density than lithium ion batteries.
Historically, rechargeable lithium metal batteries were produced using non-lithiated compounds having relatively high specific capacities, such as TiS2, MoS2, MnO2, CoO2, and V2O5, as the cathode active materials, which were coupled with a lithium metal anode. When the battery was discharged, lithium ions were transferred from the lithium metal anode through the electrolyte to the cathode, and the cathode became lithiated. Unfortunately, upon repeated charges/discharges, the lithium metal resulted in the formation of dendrites at the anode that ultimately grew to penetrate through the separator, causing internal shorting and explosion. As a result of a series of accidents associated with this problem, the production of these types of secondary batteries was stopped in the early 1990's, giving ways to lithium-ion batteries.
In lithium-ion batteries, pure lithium metal sheet or film was replaced by carbonaceous materials as the anode. The carbonaceous material absorbs lithium (through intercalation of lithium ions or atoms between graphene planes, for instance) and desorbs lithium ions during the re-charge and discharge phases, respectively, of the lithium ion battery operation. The carbonaceous material may comprise primarily graphite that can be intercalated with lithium and the resulting graphite intercalation compound may be expressed as LixC6, where x is typically less than 1.
Although lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are promising energy storage devices for electric drive vehicles, state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries have yet to meet the cost and performance targets. Li-ion cells typically use a lithium transition-metal oxide or phosphate as a positive electrode (cathode) that de/re-intercalates Li− at a high potential with respect to the carbon negative electrode (anode). The specific capacity of lithium transition-metal oxide or phosphate based cathode active material is typically in the range of 140-170 mAh/g. As a result, the specific energy of commercially available Li-ion cells is typically in the range of 120-220 Wh/kg, most typically 150-180 Wh/kg. These specific energy values are two to three times lower than what would be required for battery-powered electric vehicles to be widely accepted.
With the rapid development of hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and all-battery electric vehicles (EV), there is an urgent need for anode and cathode materials that provide a rechargeable battery with a significantly higher specific energy, higher energy density, higher rate capability, long cycle life, and safety. One of the most promising energy storage devices is the lithium-sulfur (Li—S) cell since the theoretical capacity of Li is 3,861 mAh/g and that of S is 1,675 mAh/g. In its simplest form, a Li—S cell consists of elemental sulfur as the positive electrode and lithium as the negative electrode. The lithium-sulfur cell operates with a redox couple, described by the reaction S8+16Li ↔ 8Li2S that lies near 2.2 V with respect to Li+/Li0. This electrochemical potential is approximately ⅔ of that exhibited by conventional positive electrodes (e.g. LiMnO4). However, this shortcoming is offset by the very high theoretical capacities of both Li and S. Thus, compared with conventional intercalation-based Li-ion batteries, Li—S cells have the opportunity to provide a significantly higher energy density (a product of capacity and voltage). Assuming complete reaction to Li2S, energy densities values can approach 2,500 Wh/kg and 2,800 Wh/l, respectively, based on the combined Li and S weight or volume. If based on the total cell weight or volume, the energy densities can reach approximately 1,000 Wh/kg and 1,100 Wh/l, respectively. However, the current Li-sulfur cells reported by industry leaders in sulfur cathode technology have a maximum cell specific energy of 250-400 Wh/kg (based on the total cell weight), which is far below what is possible.
In summary, despite its considerable advantages, the Li—S cell is plagued with several major technical problems that have thus far hindered its widespread commercialization:    (1) Conventional lithium metal cells still have dendrite formation and related internal shorting issues.    (2) Sulfur or sulfur-containing organic compounds are highly insulating, both electrically and ionically. To enable a reversible electrochemical reaction at high current densities or charge/discharge rates, the sulfur must maintain intimate contact with an electrically conductive additive. Various carbon-sulfur composites have been utilized for this purpose, but only with limited success owing to the limited scale of the contact area. Typical reported capacities are between 300 and 550 mAh/g (based on the cathode carbon-sulfur composite weight) at moderate rates.    (3) The cell tends to exhibit significant capacity decay during discharge-charge cycling. This is mainly due to the high solubility of the lithium polysulfide anions formed as reaction intermediates during both discharge and charge processes in the polar organic solvents used in electrolytes. During cycling, the lithium polysulfide anions can migrate through the separator to the Li negative electrode whereupon they are reduced to solid precipitates (Li2S2 and/or Li2S), causing active mass loss. In addition, the solid product that precipitates on the surface of the positive electrode during discharge becomes electrochemically irreversible, which also contributes to active mass loss.    (4) More generally speaking, a significant drawback with cells containing cathodes comprising elemental sulfur, organosulfur and carbon-sulfur materials relates to the dissolution and excessive out-diffusion of soluble sulfides, polysulfides, organo-sulfides, carbon-sulfides and/or carbon-polysulfides (hereinafter referred to as anionic reduction products) from the cathode into the rest of the cell. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the Shuttle Effect. This process leads to several problems: high self-discharge rates, loss of cathode capacity, corrosion of current collectors and electrical leads leading to loss of electrical contact to active cell components, fouling of the anode surface giving rise to malfunction of the anode, and clogging of the pores in the cell membrane separator which leads to loss of ion transport and large increases in internal resistance in the cell.
In response to these challenges, new electrolytes, protective films for the lithium anode, and solid electrolytes have been developed. Some interesting cathode developments have been reported recently to contain lithium polysulfides; but, their performance still fall short of what is required for practical applications.
Despite the various approaches proposed for the fabrication of high energy density Li—S cells, there remains a need for anode and cathode materials and structures, production processes, and cell operation methods that retard the out-diffusion of S or lithium polysulfide from the cathode compartments into other components in these cells, improve the utilization of electro-active cathode materials (S utilization efficiency), and provide rechargeable Li—S cells with high capacities over a large number of cycles. The anode structure must also address the lithium dendrite issue.
Sodium metal (Na) and potassium metal (K) have similar chemical characteristics to Li and the sulfur cathode in room temperature sodium-sulfur cells (RT Na—S batteries) or potassium-sulfur cells (K—S) face the same issues observed in Li—S batteries, such as: (i) low active material utilization rate, (ii) poor cycle life, (iii) low Coulombic efficiency, and (iv) dendrite-induced internal shorting. Again, these drawbacks arise mainly from insulating nature of S, dissolution of S and Na or K polysulfide intermediates in liquid electrolytes (and related Shuttle effect), and large volume change during charge/discharge.
Hence, an object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable alkali metal battery (e.g Li—S, Na—S, and K—S battery) that exhibits an exceptionally high specific energy or high energy density. One particular technical goal of the present invention is to provide an alkali metal-sulfur or alkali ion-sulfur cell with a cell specific energy greater than 400 Wh/Kg, preferably greater than 500 Wh/Kg, and more preferably greater than 600 Wh/Kg (all based on the total cell weight).
Another object of the present invention is to provide an alkali metal-sulfur cell that exhibits a high cathode specific capacity (higher than 1,200 mAh/g based on the sulfur weight, or higher than 1,000 mAh/g based on the cathode composite weight, including sulfur, conducting additive or substrate, and binder weights combined, but excluding the weight of cathode current collector). The specific capacity is preferably higher than 1,400 mAh/g based on the sulfur weight alone or higher than 1,200 mAh/g based on the cathode composite weight. This must be accompanied by a high specific energy, good resistance to dendrite formation, and a long and stable cycle life.
It may be noted that in most of the open literature reports (scientific papers) and patent documents, scientists or inventors choose to express the cathode specific capacity based on the sulfur or lithium polysulfide weight alone (not the total cathode composite weight), but unfortunately a large proportion of non-active materials (those not capable of storing lithium, such as conductive additive and binder) is typically used in their Li—S cells. For practical use purposes, it is more meaningful to use the cathode composite weight-based capacity value.
A specific object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable alkali metal-sulfur cell based on rational materials and battery designs that overcome or significantly reduce the following issues commonly associated with conventional Li—S cells: (a) dendrite formation (internal shorting); (b) extremely low electric and ionic conductivities of sulfur, requiring large proportion (typically 30-55%) of non-active conductive fillers and having significant proportion of non-accessible or non-reachable sulfur or alkali metal polysulfides); (c) dissolution of S and alkali metal polysulfide in electrolyte; (d) migration of polysulfides from the cathode to the anode (which irreversibly react with lithium, or Na or K at the anode), resulting in active material loss and capacity decay (the shuttle effect); and (e) short cycle life.